Police will not be able to protect children from sex crimes if the Tories win the election, a police and crime commissioner has warned.

Ex-Labour ­MP Vera Baird said Home Secretary Theresa May’s plans to cut police spending by 5 per cent a year would see her Northumbria force drop from 3,600 to 1,900 officers.

Ms Baird warned such cuts stop forces being able to investigate crime.

Speaking about child sexual exploitation she said it was “everyone’s view” scandals in Rotherham and Oxford were a “tip of the iceberg”.

Warning: Vera Baird (Image: Newcastle Chronicle)

The Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner said: “If there are thousands of reasons why anyone who cares about public services must vote out the Tories next month, a key one is to stop Theresa May, who has amply demonstrated her dislike of the police, from further demolishing forces and putting the safety of our communities at risk.

She added: “It is everybody’s view since the scandals of Rotherham, Oxford and the reports on them by Alexis Jay, Anne Coffey and Louise Casey that the current increase in reporting abuse is just the tip of the iceberg.

"Child Sexual Exploitation is endemic, but children do not call the police to report it, investigators have to seek it out.”

Warning: Theresa May (Image: PA)

Last week a report from the House of Commons library showed that child sex abuse has increased by 60 per cent in four years, while related arrests and prosecutions have gone down.

“On the same day, in a leaked letter, the Tory Police and Crime Commissioner for Thames Valley wrote that he cannot hold down vandalism if police funding is cut further, his area including the Prime Minister’s own constituency of Witney.

“So much for Theresa May’s claim that crime is falling and so we can keep on cutting the police. Crime is not falling and police work of all kinds is increasing.”